Page 119 of Where There's Smoke

He smiled, gave that JFK head tilt that made me want to choke him. “I knew Simone, yes. Her issues are as predictable as the tides, and for all he claims to be homosexual, my nephew would move heaven and earth to keep her happy.”

“To keep hersafe, yes.” My jaw ached as I clenched my teeth. “And ‘claiming’ to be homosexual? What the fuck are you—”

“His personal issues aren’t your concern,” he snapped.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and exhaled sharply. “Then why the hell did you put those problems front and fucking center and make themeveryone’sconcern? As it is, you may have sabotaged him from the beginning by drawing so goddamned much attention to his marriage, but why? Especially when you knew chances were good Simone would buckle under the stress?”

“She is, and has been from the beginning, justfine.” He inclined his head. “And she’s told me time and again how much she wants to help Jesse’s campaign.”

“Not at the expense of her health,” I snapped.

“The end justifies the means, Anthony,” he said. “You’ve been in this business long enough to know that elections are cutthroat.”

“Not that cutthroat. Not when I’m on board, anyway.”

“I didn’t expect you to like it,” he said with a shrug and a smug sneer. “But now you can see the results”—he gestured at my laptop—“so you—”

“Fuckthe results, Roger. I’m not in this to have people get hurt in exchange for percentage points. It was bad enough you drew so goddamned much attention to their marriage, but—”

“Their marriage has given Jesse an edge over his competition,” Roger snarled.

“It’s asham,” I threw back. “He’s gaining favor based on a lie.”

“And what politician hasn’t?”

I stared at Roger. He wasn’t the first slimy politician I’d dealt with, but this was his own nephew. His nephew and my lover, damn it, not to mention the man whose campaign I’d agreed to run.

“You do realize he could be impeached, right?” I asked through clenched teeth. “After he’s elected, if the public catches wind that he misrepresented himself like that.”

“I do, yes.” Roger folded his arms across his chest. “Which means the publicwon’tcatch wind of it.”

“What do you expect Jesse to do? Just stay in the closet for his entire career?”

“If he wishes to have a career in politics,” Roger said, his tone icy, “yes. I do.” And damn if he didn’t look so fucking pleased with himself.

I threw up my hands. “So he’s gay, Roger. So the fuck what?”

“It’s inappropriate,” Roger growled.

“Inappropriate?” I blinked. “Who are you to decide that?” Before he could answer, I put up a hand. “You know what? I don’t even want to hear it. But you listen to me, you son of a bitch. You want to groom him for a political career? Fine.” I stabbed a finger in his direction. “But you have no business sabotaging his personal life. You’ve asked him to choose between a political career and being able to—”

“He made his choice when he decided to forego women formen,” he snapped. “But he wants to work in politics, and if he wants to maintain the image he’s created, which includes being a devoted, committed husband”—Roger grinned—“then he’ll wisely continue to act as such.”

I swallowed. “You did this on purpose. You set it up so Simone would have a breakdown and Jesse would have no choice but to stay closeted for…fuck, foryears.”

“He chose this career path,” Roger said coolly. “I advised him to do the right thing for his career.”

“You advised him to do what he had to do to keepyourname pristine,” I snarled. “You…you used her emotional problems to further your nephew’s campaign? As something to improve Jesse’s public goddamned image and keep him in the closet? Did you think about how this would affect her? Even once? You had to know what kind of toll this would take on her. Fuck, Roger, what if Simone had done permanent damage? What if she’d had a goddamned heart attack?”

He laughed and gestured dismissively. “She isn’t foolish enough to kill herself over her ‘issues.’” He emphasized the last word with a sneer of contempt and disgust. “Simone has used all that nonsense to manipulate my nephew and those around her. She knows exactly what she’s doing.”

My jaw dropped. I clenched my fists at my sides to keep from reaching out and strangling him, but then realized I was now conveniently poised to throw a long overdue punch into his smug face. I quickly uncurled my fists. Which meant I could strangle him.

I forced out a breath and took a step back. “I…I’m done with this conversation.”

Roger called after me. I couldn’t for the life of me repeat what he’d said even before the slamming door cut him off. All I could do was get out of this room, out of this hotel, and…out. Just out of here. So I could think. Clear my head. Process what he’d told me, what I’d completely missed from day one of this campaign.

The elevator took its sweet time getting to this floor, but the doors finally opened and I stepped inside. I pressed the button for the ground floor, then hit the “close doors” button. It usually annoyed me when people hit a button repeatedly, since it didn’t actually help things happen faster, but this time I couldn’t help stabbing it a few times and cursing when the doors stayed open for long, maddening seconds.

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